what it will be hereafter.

That is what "Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self" seeks to explain,
and I have nothing to take back from what I have written in its
pages. In its experimental teaching it is the natural and intended
sequence of "A Romance of Two Worlds," and was meant to assist the
studies of the many who had written to me asking for help. And
despite the fact that some of these persons, owing to an inherent
incapacity for concentrated thought upon any subject, found it too
'difficult' as they said, for casual reading, its reception was
sufficiently encouraging to decide me on continuing to press upon
public attention the theories therein set forth. "The Soul of
Lilith" was, therefore, my next venture,--a third link in the chain
I sought to weave between the perishable materialism of our ordinary
conceptions of life, and the undying spiritual quality of life as it
truly is. In this I portrayed the complete failure that must
inevitably result from man's prejudice and intellectual pride when
studying the marvellous mysteries of what I would call the Further
World,--that is to say, the 'Soul' of the world which is hidden
deeply behind its external Appearance,--and how impossible it is and
ever must be that any 'Soul' should visibly manifest itself where
there is undue attachment to the body. The publication of the book
was a very interesting experience. It was and is still less
'popular' than "Ardath"--but it has been gladly welcomed by a
distinctly cultured minority of persons famous in art, science and
literature, whose good opinion is well worth having. With this
reward I was perfectly content, but my publisher was not so easily
pleased. He wanted something that would 'sell' better. To relieve
his impatience, therefore, I wrote a more or less 'sensational'
novel dealing with the absinthe drinkers of Paris, entitled